The tradition's account of Zarathustra's reception is a record of failure followed by a single decisive success. He is said to have preached for ten years and gained one convert, his cousin Maidhyoimaha. He then reached the court of Kavi Vishtaspa, where the established priests, the karapans and kavis he attacks by name in the Gathas, opposed him and had him imprisoned. The story of the conversion is that Vishtaspa's favourite black horse had its four legs drawn up into its body, and Zarathustra offered to cure it in exchange for four conditions, restoring one leg at a time: that Vishtaspa accept the religion, that his queen Hutaosa accept it, that his warrior son Isfandiyar defend it, and that the courtiers who had slandered him be named. All four were met. Royal patronage followed, and the religion spread with the political power of the house that adopted it — a pattern the tradition records without discomfort.